When the going gets tough, the tough … compromise? This appears to be the misguided advice some liberals and even some Republicans are giving the GOP as a way to regain political ground recently lost or ceded to Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. But this is no time for Republicans or anybody else to sacrifice truth and principle for political expediency and power.

Utah’s Republican governor, John Huntsman, is a good example of someone whose advice to the GOP should be ignored. Speaking publicly on the need to open the Republican Party to a “wider range of viewpoints” to attract younger voters, Huntsman said that he favors civil unions for same-sex couples. He also recently signed an initiative that would set a regional “cap-and-trade” effort to reduce global warming. For his liberal views, Huntsman has received praise from Obama’s presidential campaign manager, David Plouffe, and criticism from true conservatives. Last month, Huntsman’s scheduled appearance at a GOP fundraiser in Michigan was canceled by local officials. Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan said, regarding Huntsman, that any leader of the Republican Party must remain “faithful to the party platform.”

Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain, is also getting a lot of attention from the liberal media for criticism of the Republican Party. Last Friday, Miss McCain wrote an open letter in the New York Post entitled, “Why the New York GOP should embrace gay marriage,” and has criticized the party for being too “extreme” in supporting traditional marriage, abstinence before marriage, and for its opposition to open homosexuals in the military.

And then there is Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania senator who transferred his party affiliation to the Democratic Party, claiming that the Republican Party had moved too far to the right. However, Specter’s liberal views were well-known to conservatives even prior to his last election, which he barely won with the help of then-President George W. Bush, who supported Specter over a true conservative candidate in the party primary. Specter, like so many, is obviously attracted to the party in power who happens to share his liberal philosophy and pro-abortion ideology.

Admittedly, the Republican Party has not successfully articulated its conservative economic and social principles that in the past produced much of the prosperity and happiness we have enjoyed. As Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina recently said, “We live in an era in which conservatives have not effectively outlined the proper and limited role of government, and as a direct consequence of our failures, more and more of our citizens are turning to an ever-encroaching government in times of crisis. Yet to allow the balance of power in this nation to continue to shift further and further toward government and thus further and further from liberty is to surrender the very thing that makes America so historically unique.” I agree: the solution is not to abandon ship and adopt the position of liberal Democrats, as Huntsman, Ms. McCain and Specter propose.

Liberal Democrats like Obama and Plouffe love to give a microphone to politicians such as Specter and Huntsman, and to liberal individuals like Meghan McCain, who will help them advance homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion and opposition to free enterprise. And in the wake of Obama’s recent election and Democratic control of Congress, we might be led to believe that this liberal trend is inevitable – but the truth is, it is not!

Despite liberal judges forcing every state to accept a woman’s right to take the life of her unborn child for the past 36 years, recent polls reflect that those who consider themselves “pro-life” are now in the majority. Additionally, in every state where the people have had an opportunity to vote on marriage, the people have elected to define marriage as between one man and one woman. The truth is that while liberals now hold the reins of power in Washington, D.C., the American people have not abandoned traditional morality and a conservative philosophy of government.

I personally believe that Democrats won the election of 2008 because most of the leading Republican candidates did not adhere to a conservative philosophy. The Republican Party must never abandon time-tested and proven conservative principles of limited government, lower taxes, individual responsibility and a free-market system. As Martin Luther once explained, “Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved … [it] is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

A battle rages for the life and soul of our nation. We need leadership that will not flinch when the going gets tough.